Atropa belladonna is a plant that gained its name from its use in Renaissance Italy. Belladonna means ‘beautiful lady’, and it was popular among women to use belladonna to enlarge their pupils in order to look more attractive. However, it is also known by a darker name: deadly nightshade. As this name suggests, the plant contains a lethal poison involved in murders and accidental poisonings, and was likely taken by Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Belladonna also has a past as a recreational drug, due to it causing hallucinations. In medieval times, this property was sometimes exploited by using it in ‘flying ointment’, to give sensations of flying or levitating. There was also a belief that the devil favoured the plant, while peasants used it to ward off evil spirits.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
